| 1 | Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, |
| 2 | Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind? |
| 3 | Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good? |
| 4 | Yea, thou doest away with fear, And hinderest devotion before God. |
| 5 | For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty. |
| 6 | Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; Yea, thine own lips testify against thee. |
| 7 | Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou brought forth before the hills? |
| 8 | Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God? And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself? |
| 9 | What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us? |
| 10 | With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, Much elder than thy father. |
| 11 | Are the consolations of God too small for thee, Even the word that is gentle toward thee? |
| 12 | Why doth thy heart carry thee away? And why do thine eyes flash, |
| 13 | That against God thou turnest thy spirit, And lettest words go out of thy mouth? |
| 14 | What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? |
| 15 | Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight: |
| 16 | How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water! |
| 17 | I will show thee, hear thou me; And that which I have seen I will declare: |
| 18 | (Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hid it; |
| 19 | Unto whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them): |
| 20 | The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor. |
| 21 | A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. |
| 22 | He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, And he is waited for of the sword. |
| 23 | He wandereth abroad for bread, [saying], Where is it? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. |
| 24 | Distress and anguish make him afraid; They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. |
| 25 | Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty; |
| 26 | He runneth upon him with a [stiff] neck, With the thick bosses of his bucklers; |
| 27 | Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat upon his loins; |
| 28 | And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, In houses which no man inhabited, Which were ready to become heaps; |
| 29 | He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth. |
| 30 | He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of [God's] mouth shall he go away. |
| 31 | Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity shall be his recompense. |
| 32 | It shall be accomplished before his time, And his branch shall not be green. |
| 33 | He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree. |
| 34 | For the company of the godless shall be barren, And fire shall consume the tents of bribery. |
| 35 | They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, And their heart prepareth deceit. |